Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

By Bill Barker

Essay

When 17-year-old Thomas Jefferson left his home in the wilds of western Virginia to travel over 120 miles east to attend the old Royal College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, he knew that in a few years he would come into the inheritance of a great estate left him by his father who had been deceased for several years. As the eldest son in a family of ten children, young Jefferson would benefit from the ancient English laws of Primogeniture and Entail. The maintenance and increase of that estate would require his constant attention and the education he would receive at William and Mary would prepare him well for that lifelong administration. Though he may not have realized it that winter of 1759-60, his education would also prepare him well for what would become 40 years in public administration.

Young Mr. Jefferson certainly did not realize when he entered college that, in another ten years, he would be elected to his first public office and take his seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, in the spring of 1769. Nor would it have occurred to him that in yet another ten years, 1779, he would be elected the second Governor of the new Commonwealth of Virginia and reside in the old Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg. He was the last resident of that palace, which had been home to so many of Colonial Virginia’s former Royal Governors.

Mr. Jefferson would return to Virginia after five very happy years in La Belle France to take up the appointment of our nation’s first Secretary of State in 1789. He would be invited a second time to stand for the office of President of the United States, and, after a highly contested and bitter political campaign, he would be elected the third President in 1799. Mr. Jefferson would finally retire and, in 1809, hand the gavel of the presidency over to his friend, James Madison. And yet, was Mr. Jefferson finally retired? Hardly, for ten years later he established the University of Virginia in 1819, which he called, “the project of my autumn years.”

None of us have any idea where we will be in ten years. Certainly, Mr. Jefferson was no different. But one thing he did know with respect to his future was that it depended upon his past — what he had learned both in school and from life’s experiences. He never forgot that he was one of the privileged few whose family could afford for him an education. He used that advantage throughout his life to further the necessity for a national system of education that would be available to all Americans. Both the lessons he learned in school as to what history may teach us and the lessons he learned through his own personal history convinced him that history should be the first and foremost subject taught in any system of education. Where we are at present depends upon where we’ve been in the past.

He often said of our Declaration of American Independence that it does not contain one new or original thought. It is founded upon the wisdom of the ages. Mr. Jefferson firmly believed that the prophets of the future would be found in the wisdom of the past. One cannot help but wonder whether Thomas Jefferson may have pondered in his autumn years over the many lessons he learned in life. He must have thought to himself, “What was the most important thing I’ve learned?” Perhaps it may have been simply that with all the wealth he was born into and inherited at the age of 21 years, so much of which he lost to creditors throughout his life, the one thing no one could take away from him; the greatest legacy his father left hi was an education.

Bill Barker

Bill Barker has enjoyed portraying Mr. Jefferson in a variety of settings for nearly thirty years. He first came to Colonial Williamsburg in the spring of 1993 to perform as Jefferson in a film with former President Ronald Reagan to honor Ambassador and Mrs. Walter H. Annenberg. He has continued to appear as Mr. Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg and assists in the development of historically themed programming for the Foundation.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Bill’s interest in Thomas Jefferson and his world reaches back to his youth. Amongst many venues over the years, he has portrayed our third President at The White House, The United States Capitol, The National Archives, Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, The Federal Executive Institute, The Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Chautauqua, New York, National Park Service, Baylor University, Rice University and the Palace of Versailles in France. He continues to research the history of the world Jefferson knew with an interest in the role Mr. Jefferson played, and continues to play, in our American identity.

Bullet Points

“I Enjoy The Dreams Of The Future Better Than The History Of The Past." Thomas Jefferson had a great regard for the study of history as a method of insuring the future that the past was continually relevant to the present.
“The Pursuit Of Happiness". Jefferson's alteration of John Locke's statement, “… the pursuit of property” into “… the pursuit of happiness”, insured that one of the founding principals of our nation would guarantee Meritocracy over Aristocracy.
“The Power Of Reason”. Mr. Jefferson purported that, “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”

Quotes

“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

“We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

“Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”

“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Acting will delineate and define you.”

“In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principal stand like a rock.”

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Timeline

April 13, 1743: Born at Shadwell Farm, Albemarle County, Virginia.

March, 1760: Entered William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia.

1762-1765: Read law with George Wythe, Williamsburg, Virginia.

March, 1769: Elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

January 1, 1772: Married to Martha Wayles Skelton.

October, 1773: Appointed Surveyor of Albemarle County, Virginia.

1775-1776: Attends Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

June 11, 1776: Appointed to Committee to draft the Declaration of American Independence.

November, 1776: Appointed to Committee to Revise Laws of Virginia.

1779-1781: Second Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

November 1781-June, 1784: Virginia Delegate to U. S. Congress.

September 6, 1782: Death of Mrs. Thomas Jefferson.

1784-1789: Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Court of France.

1790-1793: Secretary of State under President Washington.

1793-1796: Retired from public service.

1797-1801: Second Vice President of the United States.

1797-1814: President of the American Philosophical Society.

1801-1809: Third President of the United States.

October 6, 1817: Begins construction of the University of Virginia.

July 4, 1826: Death of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello.

High Plains Chautauqua